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Thursday, January 26, 2017

It took me a while to comprehend, and a lot longer to put in
perspective.

It seems like it’s
been a lifetime that I have done anything that “I” liked. I cook food that the kids would eat without a
fuss and we go to restaurants that they like. Most times, I sit in front of the
TV, and watch whatever the family’s watching. More often than not, I just walk
away with my book and hide until they are done with TV. We go on vacations that
A thinks of….which isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy them. But it isn’t quite the
same as doing “what I like”. After all,
I am a firm believer in the saying, “Do what you love or Love what you do”. I
think I don’t mind taking the back seat. So I don't know what bothered me when I couldn’t think of an answer.to that simple, direct
question;

Early on in our marriage, I remember dragging A to a PhilHarmonic
concert. Around the same time, he took me to a Zakir Hussain concert. The experiences were ….interesting, to say the least. He yawned the whole time, and
slouched, sighed and annoyed the heck out of me. I tried going to the movies
with him – a few of those popular Bollywood ones – he laughed till he cried and
fell off his chair, clapped his hands and had an insanely entertaining time. I sat
and fidgeted and wondered why I had to endure that 3h torture when I could have
done something more productive (like reading a book!) Over time, we both gave up;
never having found a middle ground for our likes.

Friday, January 20, 2017

“How many harvest festivals do Indians celebrate?” was the
smart-aleck Anya question this past weekend.

Reason- I had made Til ki Patti (Sesame seed Brittle) at
home; and was forcing her to try a bite under the pretext that it was a special
dessert made for Harvest celebration as marked by Makar Sankranti.

My first reaction was annoyance. Her tone really had that
early-teen disdain for everything “parent”. One deep breath later, I figured
that if she asked that question; she probably remembers the other Harvest
Holidays and stories that I have told her and Baby P. This is good, in fact-
better than good. After all, isn’t the goal to make them aware of our special
traditions and celebrations?

So I ventured into my convoluted, Wikipedia-verified version(s)
of why we celebrate Sankranti. Anya
rolled her eyes and went back to doing whatever she was doing, but remained close
and kept her earphones out of her ears. A big enough achievement, under the
circumstances. Baby P hung on to every word, asked tons of questions and
chattered on while I tried to google apt responses for her. Somehow, she made
me wish that I could hold on to her years a little longer….having a teenager on
hand is surely a trial!